Lunar greenhouse (Discover)
The next Earthlings to reach the Moon will be turnips, basil, and arabidopsis. NASA is sending a probe to the Moon with a miniature greenhouse in it, to observe how (or if) plants grow under lunar conditions.
Life and geography (New Scientist)
It's generally known that life is responsible for the composition of our atmosphere, with its high oxygen content. Now Tilman Spohn of the Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin proposes that life is responsible for such major geological features as continental drift and plate tectonics. The idea is that life increases erosion, and the extra erosion sediment lubricates the tectonic plates, making continental drift possible.
Archeologists working on the remains of an Asokan temple in Nepal have found traces of an ancient tree shrine. The Asokan temple dates to the third century BC, but the shrine beneath may be as much as three hundred years older, which could take us back to the time Buddha lived, and that temple is widely regarded as marking the place of his birth.
Fly like a jellyfish (New Scientist)
Engineers have created flying robots patterned after insects before this, but now they've made one that flies based on the way a jellyfish swims. The video in this link is worth seeing.
Stealth sea horse (Discover)
Here's another cool video: watch a sea horse sneak up on a copepod and vacuum it up so fast, even the slow motion replay is impressively fast. Even more impressive, the sea horse can move his head without making ripples in the water (which would alert the copepod).
Targeted leucocytes (New Scientist)
Five patients with lymphoblastic leukemia are responding to therapy using their own white blood cells, genetically re-engineered to hunt down and kill their cancer cells. This general strategy was proposed a long time ago, but now it actually looks like it's working.
Autohypnosis vs autism (Science Daily)
Know what "co-morbidities" are? That's the charming term for the other problems that come with your main problem. Anxiety disorders are a common co-morbidity with autism — as if it wasn't already scary enough not being able to pick up on the hints and clues all the people around you are trading like telepaths trading brainwaves. But it turns out that young autistic children can be taught biofeedback and autohypnosis to control their anxiety.